Omaha Beach

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Omaha Beach
Part of World War II

Troops from the First Division landing on Omaha Beach.
Date 6 June 1944
Location Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes, St. Lô, Vierville-sur-Mer, in France
Result American victory.
Combatants
United States Germany
Commanders
Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, U.S. 1st Infantry Division and U.S. 29th Infantry Division Generalleutnant Dietrich Kraiss, German 352nd Infantry Division
Strength
34,000  ?
Casualties
2,400 1,200
Battle of Normandy
Sword – Juno – Gold – Omaha – Utah – Pointe du Hoc – Brécourt Manor – Chicago – Villers-Bocage – Cherbourg – Epsom – Goodwood – Atlantic – Spring – Cobra – Bluecoat – Lüttich – Totalise – Tractable – Falaise – Brest – Paris
The build-up of Omaha Beach: reinforcements of men and equipment moving inland.
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The build-up of Omaha Beach: reinforcements of men and equipment moving inland.
Map of the Omaha beachhead 6 June 1944.
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Map of the Omaha beachhead 6 June 1944.
Present day view of Omaha Beach from inside an intact German artillery bunker. Note how the bunker faces not towards the ocean, but down the beach. This allowed multiple bunkers to create deadly crossfire patterns that caused high numbers of Allied casualties on D-Day.
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Present day view of Omaha Beach from inside an intact German artillery bunker. Note how the bunker faces not towards the ocean, but down the beach. This allowed multiple bunkers to create deadly crossfire patterns that caused high numbers of Allied casualties on D-Day.
An intact German bunker at Omaha Beach.
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An intact German bunker at Omaha Beach.

Omaha Beach was the Allied codename for one of the principal landing points during the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944. The beach is approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 km) long, from Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes to Vierville-sur-Mer.

The untested 29th Infantry Division, joined by 8 companies of Rangers redirected from Pointe du Hoc, were to assault the western flank of the beach. The 1st Infantry Division was given the eastern approach. This was their third amphibious assault of the war, after Africa and Sicily. The primary objective of the Omaha Beach assault was to secure a beachhead between Port-en-Bessin and the Vire River, before pushing southward toward Saint-Lô.

Contents

[edit] "Bloody Omaha"

The Wehrmacht had well prepared Atlantic Wall defenses, with various obstacles strewn along the beach, and the gentle downward slope providing an excellent field of fire. The German 352nd Division defending Omaha Beach was one of the better-trained units in the area. 27 of the 32 amphibious Sherman DD Tanks intended to give armored support floundered in the rough seas before reaching shore, due to a combination of adverse weather conditions (the tanks faced 2 meter-high waves which they could not withstand), improper navigation (the tanks approached in a stairstep pattern, exposing the low sides of their floatation devices to the incoming waves), and poor command (many of the tanks were launched approximately 5 kilometers offshore, too far away for the fragile tanks). The Allied air bombardment of the beach defenses prior to the landings was largely ineffective: most of the ordnance fell too far inland. The initial naval bombardment proved just as ineffective due to the short time allotted to the naval guns (40 minutes). The result was German defenses left largely intact when the first assault waves hit the beach. Soldiers who were not immediately killed found almost no defilade on the 182 meter-deep beach (at low tide), and what little cover provided by the beach obstacles was nullified by overlapping fields of fire pre-sighted by the Germans. Fogbanks and smoke from artillery fire created low visibility for the men on the beach, and many could only barely make out the cliffs ahead. The carefully planned assault became chaos as wind, waves, and current scattered most of the landing craft far from their assigned targets. Tired and seasick troops, weighed down by wet and sand-filled gear, could not run across the open sand (as often portrayed in movies). Most could only walk or trot the expanse toward the seawall.

[edit] Breakthrough

Commanders offshore considered abandoning the attack altogether and redirecting the Omaha forces to Utah Beach. However, the largely leaderless surviving infantry and Rangers who made it to the seawall managed to breach the barbed wire and minefield defenses using Bangalore torpedoes and organized a push directly up the cliffs, opening some of the exits and enabling more troops to join the assault. The pillboxes which continued to rain fire on the continual waves of men on the beach became enormous tombs as they were attacked from the rear. The vast network of trenches provided several pockets of resistance, eventually broken by the now overwhelming Allied forces. Several Allied destroyers improvised an attack on the German positions, nearly running aground to get past the smoke to open fire on the bluffs, cutting off the German defenders from retreating or receiving reinforcements.

[edit] Casualties

The landings at Omaha Beach resulted in heavy American casualties. The official record of the 1st Infantry Division stated that "within 10 minutes of the ramps being lowered, [the leading] company had become inert, leaderless and almost incapable of action. Every officer and sergeant had been killed or wounded... It had become a struggle for survival and rescue". The approximately 40,000 men of V Corps incurred over 3,000 casualties, most in the first few hours.

Casualties per unit varied widely, but the first wave was hit the hardest. Yet, since the assault occurred at low tide, many of the obstacles placed by the Germans were exposed and thus easily avoidable for most of the landing craft. The majority of the attacking force therefore reached the beach. Mined sticks deployed directly in front of the most fortified German positions were completely eliminated. However, as the landing craft ramps (referred to as "murder-holes," after the architectural term applied to castles) dropped, the narrow opening at the front of the craft exposed the entire troop complement to enfilading enemy MG42 fire. Other units, lucky to land on portions of the beach obscured by smoke, or between or unparallel to the bunkers, made it onto the beach with substantially fewer losses. Another factor was the skill and courage of landing craft coxswains. Some emptied their craft dozens of yards offshore after hitting sandbars and the soldiers had to drop their weapons and supplies or drown in the surf, and were openly exposed to enemy fire as they slowly waded ashore. Other coxswains made every effort to land the troops right on the beach with multiple attempts and significant risk to their craft.

[edit] Orders of battle

American units
German units

[edit] German beach defences

  • Czech hedgehog - 3 pronged tank obstacles.
  • C-element/Belgian Gate - 2 metre-high steel gates, first utilised by Belgium
  • Wooden Stakes - Large stakes with mines on the top, angled toward the sea to stop approaching landing craft
  • Wooden Ramps - Ramps angled toward the bluffs with mines on the top and sides, angled so that approaching landing craft would knock them over and detonate the mines
  • Mines
  • Widerstandsnester - concrete pillboxes outfitted with machine guns

[edit] Dramatizations

Movies

Music Videos

Games


[edit] External links

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